Taskkill /f doesn't kill a process

Question

When I start up an Experimental instance of VS from VS for debugging and stop debugging (sometimes directly from the parent VS), a zombile devenv.exe process remains running which I am unable to kill. It holds on to many of my dlls.

As I am logged onto this 64bit Win7 machine as Administrator, I would expect to be able to kill any process I wish to.

I tried (from Administrator command prompt):

End Task from Task Manager.
TASKKILL /F /IM devenv.exe
PSKILL devenv.exe

None return any error and TASKKILL and PSKILL returned success messages of terminating/killing the process. But devenv.exe still runs, it is not re-spawned as the PID remains constant. It goes away only on restart of the system which is not a great solution.

Note. LockHunter shows devenv has got a lock on itself. And it cannot unlock it.

Process Monitor shows devenv to be in some kind of 'Process Profiling' loop

The above screenshot is the output of Process Monitor showing devenv to be in some kind of 'Process Profiling' loop (Right click on it and click open image in new tab to see it properly).

Any ideas how to kill such a process on Windows?

No idea why you don't get an error, but to verify one thing: Did you call these commands from an elevated command prompt? Otherwise the commands will not run with Administrator privileges, even though your account has them. (This shouldn't allow them to return success when they clearly failed though ;)) — SvenS, Sep 21 '12 at 10:52
yes all commands were run from Administrator command prompts. — dushyantp, Sep 21 '12 at 12:07
This sort of question is more appropriate on http://superuser.com. Yup, they have quite good explanations there. [This one](http://superuser.com/a/295990/167666) helped me. — Jarekczek, Oct 29 '12 at 19:58

score 99 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 15 '13 at 13:09

99

you must kill child process too if any spawned to kill successfully your process

taskkill /IM "process_name" /T /F

/T = kills child process

/F = forceful termination of your process

edited Oct 15 '13 at 13:09

LaurentG

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answered Oct 15 '13 at 12:51

aaa

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It prints two success messages in my case, but the process is still there. What the hell? – CodeManX Aug 24 '15 at 02:21
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if that would be so easy :) no, it doesn't help. I think his problem is because the unkillable process is in some loop (socket, i/o, pipes...) where the main process is system process and killing it will make system unstable. It that case I would recomend first to understand what loop is the process in. Then, if that loop is network exchange with other endpoint, then just unplug network cable or disconnect the already established connection. – Sep 12 '15 at 13:18
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I get a `There is no running instance of the task` That process really does not want to die! – demongolem May 11 '16 at 03:59
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still help me today, though I have to kill the "child of the child" too: taskkill /f /T /PID 4172 ==> ERROR: The process with PID 4172 (child process of PID 4724) could not be terminated. ==> taskkill /f /T /PID 4724 ==> Done – Hoàng Long Aug 12 '16 at 08:25
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Yay for the under-mentioned `/T` switch! – kayleeFrye_onDeck Apr 27 '17 at 20:03
in case of „There is no running instance of the task“ it must be killed some associated process which holds lock on this process, for example devenv.exe is associated with some_debugged_process.exe – tibx Apr 12 '19 at 05:34
YAY! this has been affecting the enjoyment of my LIFE. thank you – Justin Mar 10 '20 at 23:14
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Did not work for me, trying to delete the Windows Defender process that uses near 100% of disk access.. – David Spector Jun 08 '20 at 12:04

twasbrillig · Answer 2 · 2019-04-05T17:50:20.203

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The taskkill and powershell (kill) methods didn't work for me; it still said "Access Denied".

I had better luck with this:

wmic process where "name='myprocessname.exe'" delete

edited Apr 05 '19 at 17:50

answered Aug 04 '16 at 03:04

twasbrillig

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ERROR: Description = Invalid query – user1133275 Nov 10 '16 at 17:14
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Windows-10. Also: `ERROR: Description = Access denied` (Using Admin console btw) – FractalSpace Nov 11 '16 at 16:37
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Thank you! That worked like a charm for my stuck npm – Eduardo Elias Saléh Apr 10 '18 at 08:19
On Win10 still failed: Deleting instance \\DESKTOP-HJC3KKE\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_Process.Handle="41236" ERROR: Description = Access denied – zhaorufei Apr 28 '18 at 00:48
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Amazing, thanks so much. Spent an hour on kill before I found this – Derek MC May 18 '18 at 19:18
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Powershell equivalent `Get-WmiObject -Query "select * from win32_process where name = 'node.exe'" | Remove-WmiObject` – BrunoLM Jun 16 '18 at 14:22
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This one still doesn't work in my case. Have a Visual Studio stuck in processes, ran the command and it says Deleting instance \\MyMachine\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_Process.Handle="6420", Instance deletion successful. But after 5 mins I still see the VS devenv.exe process in task manager list. I guess nothing but a reboot is the only solution for me. – wctiger Aug 10 '18 at 16:53
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When I run wmic command from gitbash, I have to include the query in quotes. Your command should then become: `wmic process where "name='myprocessname.exe'" delete` – Malganis Sep 13 '18 at 21:32
Thanks @Malganis, I updated the answer with that change. – twasbrillig Sep 14 '18 at 20:58
Did not work for me, trying to delete the Windows Defender process that uses near 100% of disk access.. – David Spector Jun 08 '20 at 12:04
What nonsese windows is, it's own commands cannot end it own task, its irritating. Now I understand why real enterprise apps use UNIX – Aadam Jun 14 '20 at 17:31
The "Invalid Query" error happens if you don't quote it properly – Elliott B Jan 06 '21 at 03:39
Visual Studio was protecting the process, in my case. – Matt Kleinsmith Apr 02 '21 at 01:29
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Wanted to add my two cents and say this is the command that ACTUALLY worked for me when the other one failed miserably. Thanks. – XavierTheGreat Apr 13 '21 at 13:46

score 41 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 07 '20 at 12:50

41

Reboot is the only solution that worked for me (so far).

The ever excellent Mark Russonovich has a good explanation for unkillable processes.

To summarise, it's quite possible it is due to unprocessed I/O requests that hasn't been handled properly (by a device driver your program has possibly accessed)

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-blog-archive/unkillable-processes/ba-p/723389

edited Aug 07 '20 at 12:50

MaYaN

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answered Mar 22 '15 at 18:34

Francis

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What I did is shut it down, then restart it. – Gellie Ann Nov 06 '18 at 00:57
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For me computer doesn't restart, freezes on Restarting ... screen, mouse is moving. I can wait 2 hours and then I must manually switch it off by button. – Marťas Feb 05 '21 at 12:20

score 38 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 30 '15 at 15:58

38

Just had the same issue on Windows Server 2008 R2 and nothing helped, not taskmanager or taskkill. But, windows powershell run as administrator worked with "kill -id pid"

edited Jun 30 '15 at 15:58

DomainsFeatured

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answered Oct 02 '14 at 13:31

Gnampf

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This worked for me... though there seemed to be about a 30 second delay before the process actually went away, so at first it seemed to fail. In the case that I had it was a process that was created procedurally by another application while the system was low on resources. Process Explorer, kill process tree, and several other things failed to work, but this did the trick. – J. Paulding Jan 06 '16 at 20:28
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Didn't work for me, gave me an error unable to kill process etc etc – rboy Feb 24 '17 at 17:45
@rboy . I know its old, but just in case someone else sees this do what I did. Open powershell as Administrator and then run it. At first I ran it not as admin and it told me I couldn't do it. So then I ran it as admin and it worked. – Chris Jones Jun 14 '17 at 15:35
This worked for me on Windows 10 with a misbehaving Windows service. Had already tried CMD, in this case PowerShell is the right tool – ThetaSinner May 04 '18 at 15:49
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No luck for me even after waiting for more than 2-3 mins. none of the command is working for me currently – Tarun Gupta Jul 16 '18 at 11:28

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 13 '13 at 01:51

9

I know it's late but taskkill /im devenv.exe /t /f should work. the /t kills child processes too.

answered Oct 13 '13 at 01:51

cure

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This doesn't seem to work for me. It says it's successful, but the process still shows up. – Scott Whitlock Feb 03 '14 at 13:28
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I'm facing a similar issue too but with microsoft ftp service, says terminated but continues to run cant figure it out – rboy May 12 '14 at 00:26
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If instead of `/IM devenv.exe` I use `/PID 17888` then the error basically said that 17888 is a child of 17880 and 17880 isn't running and so can't be killed. – Jesse Chisholm Jun 07 '15 at 15:09
this works but make sure you are using cmd from admin mode. – karan Mar 16 '18 at 18:43
Did not work for me, trying to delete the Windows Defender process that uses near 100% of disk access.. – David Spector Jun 08 '20 at 12:05

score 9 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 31 '18 at 17:35

9

In my case, after several days of fighting with this problem (it was happening to VirtualBox and µTorrent processes), I discovered it was caused by a network driver issue, provoked by Windows Update patch KB4338818 (Windows 7 x64). After uninstalling that patch everything went back to normal. I just thought it could be useful for others.

answered Jul 31 '18 at 17:35

Danita

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How did you discover that the update caused it? I think I would have never discovered that. ^^' – das Keks Aug 09 '18 at 14:29
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I realized the only thing that changed in my machine before the issue become apparent was the updates, so I checked which was my last update and read the release notes. It seemed suspicious and I rolled back to see if the issue was solved, which it was. Then I read on some Apache forums, don't remember which, that this update has caused trouble for them too. BTW: Last Windows Update as of 2018/Aug/10 fixes the problem with KB4338818, so it can be installed again. – Danita Aug 10 '18 at 15:19

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 20 '13 at 16:49

6

I could solve my issue rearding this problem by killing explorer.exe which in turn was addicted to the process I wanted to kill. I guess this may also happen if processes open interfaces via hook which may be locked.

answered Sep 20 '13 at 16:49

seansilver

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I tried killing and restarting explorer.exe and that didn't work. – Scott Whitlock Feb 03 '14 at 13:29
When I did `taskkill /IM "process_name" /T /F` part of the response was: `(child process of PID xxxx)` so I checked that PID and it was explorer.exe, restarting it solved my issue. – Facundo Colombier Dec 29 '19 at 00:39

zig1000 · Answer 8 · 2017-07-17T22:29:28.337

6

Native tskill <pid> (or tskill.exe <pid> ) worked for me on Windows 10 where no other native answer did.

In my case, I had some chrome.exe processes for which task manager's 'End Task' was working, but neither taskkill /F /T /PID <pid> nor powershell's kill -id <pid> worked (even with both shells run as admin).

This is very strange as taskkill is purported to be a better-api-and-does-more version of tskill.

In my case to kill all instances of a certain task I used FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`TASKLIST /FI "IMAGENAME eq name_of_task.exe"`) DO tskill %i

edited Jul 17 '17 at 22:29

answered Jul 17 '17 at 19:09

zig1000

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This worked for me, when none of the others did. Thx :D – jk1990 Sep 18 '17 at 11:55
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Didn't work for me. Got `End Process failed for 10576:Access is denied.` – twasbrillig Jul 25 '18 at 19:14
Happening the same for me. What I cannot understand, is why? taskkill is supposed to be the same as tskill [rather better, in documentation etc.]. If someone could answer? – dvlper Feb 22 '19 at 15:26
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Seems there is no tskill in Windows 10 – robertspierre Nov 02 '19 at 11:00
Did not work for me, trying to delete the Windows Defender process that uses near 100% of disk access.. – David Spector Jun 08 '20 at 12:15
Worked for me in Windows 10 Pro, calling from Java. taskkill did not work, so this was the solution I found. – Mario Oct 27 '20 at 06:17

score 5 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 21 '12 at 11:24

5

I've seen this a few times and my only solution was a re-boot.

You could try using PowerShell: Get-Process devenv | kill

But if the other methods failed, this probably will too. :-(

answered Sep 21 '12 at 11:24

Thomas Lee

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Sadly yes! For me also it's the case. did you ever get any solution? – manocha_ak Jan 16 '15 at 12:10
Not worked for me on win10: PS D:\work\Projects\libtiff.net_bin-2.4.560.0> Get-Process NSPRip | kill PS D:\work\Projects\libtiff.net_bin-2.4.560.0> echo $? True PS D:\work\Projects\libtiff.net_bin-2.4.560.0> Get-Process NSPRip Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName ------- ------ ----- ----- ------ -- -- ----------- 0 0 56 20 0.00 41236 1 NSPRip – zhaorufei Apr 28 '18 at 00:50

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 27 '17 at 21:23

I am going to suggest something here because I recently faced the same issue and I tried every possible thing in the answers but nothing worked. I was getting errors like

ERROR: The process with PID 23908 could not be terminated. Reason: There is no running instance of the task.

using command prompt. Power shell wasn't helpful either. it would simply execute the commands and no response with process still running.

Until I decided to delete the associated '.exe' file. Since the file was active, windows would not allow the deletion, but in that warning window it gave me the name of the process which was holding up the task I wanted to kill. I was able to kill the original task and thus the buggy process.

It is definitely worth a try if none of the solutions works out.

was really hoping.... deleting the command didn't work... access denied (even tho admin) — Erik Aronesty, Sep 15 '20 at 22:30

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Sep 16 '20 at 08:57

3

If taskkill /F /T /PID <pid> does not work. Try opening your terminal elevated using Run as Administrator.

Search cmd in your windows menu, and right click Run as Administrator, then run the command again. This worked for me.

edited Sep 16 '20 at 08:57

Itchydon

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answered Feb 19 '18 at 04:02

Kevin Li

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Phillip Ngan · Answer 12 · 2018-04-18T20:19:49.610

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I was getting the following results with taskkill

>taskkill /im "MyApp.exe" /t /f
ERROR: The process with PID 32040 (child process of PID 54176) could not be terminated.
Reason: There is no running instance of the task.

>taskkill /pid 54176  /t /f
ERROR: The process "54176" not found.

What worked for me was sysinternal's pskill

>pskill.exe -t 32040

PsKill v1.15 - Terminates processes on local or remote systems
Copyright (C) 1999-2012  Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Process 32040 killed.

You can get pskill from the sysinternal's live site

edited Apr 18 '18 at 20:19

answered Mar 14 '18 at 22:50

Phillip Ngan

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Didn't work for me. Got: `Unable to kill process 10576: Access is denied.` – twasbrillig Jul 25 '18 at 19:11
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You may need to do it from a command shell with admin rights? – BenV136 Jan 03 '19 at 17:26
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pskill64 at command shell with admin rights didn't work for me either. same error "access is denied." – Mouffette Jul 04 '21 at 00:42

score 3 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 02 '21 at 01:45

3

taskkill /f /im "process.exe"

running cmd or .bat file as administrator worked for me

answered Sep 02 '21 at 01:45

archangelval

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score 3 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 18 '22 at 07:44

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while taskkill didn't work

taskkill /f /t /pid 14492

ERROR: The process with PID 14492 (child process of PID 7992) could not be terminated.
Reason: There is no running instance of the task.

the simpler tskill has worked fine for me

tskill 14492

answered Oct 18 '22 at 07:44

Jirka Buš

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tskill was the only thing that worked for me. Thanks for this answer – Eric Nov 16 '22 at 22:34

score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 21 '12 at 11:51

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Some of the Exe files Dependents on Some services,

So you need find the respective service and stop first.

answered Sep 21 '12 at 11:51

girish

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any hints on how to work this out? On taskmanager it doesn't show any service corresponding to devenv.exe Right now I am trying to recreate the problem, once done I will use process explorer to dig into services which could be holding it. – dushyantp Sep 21 '12 at 12:09

score 2 · Answer 16 · edited Mar 27 '19 at 14:26

2

Running as an admin works for me:

1.search cmd in windows

2.right click on cmd select as "Run as administrator"

3.netstat -ano | findstr :8080

4.taskkill/pid (your number) /F

edited Mar 27 '19 at 14:26

Eonasdan

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answered Aug 26 '18 at 21:09

Qing Yuan

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If you get an error such as: 'nestat' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. you may need to run the command as C:\Windows\system32\netstat.exe instead of just nestat – sk8asd123 Dec 02 '18 at 15:25

score 2 · Answer 17 · edited Aug 28 '18 at 22:34

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The same problem happened to me in VirtualBox with respect to Java processes.

In my case, it was due to a bug in Windows Update patch KB4338818 (Windows 7 x64).

I solved it by doing the following:

Uninstall Windows Update patch KB4338818
Install Windows Update patch KB4338821

edited Aug 28 '18 at 22:34

Robert Columbia

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answered Aug 28 '18 at 22:30

Philippe GRANET

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score 2 · Answer 18 · edited May 04 '19 at 14:27

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For me, the way it worked is I have to kill the parent process. Figure the parent process out and kill it

taskkill /IM "parent_process_name.exe" /T /F

edited May 04 '19 at 14:27

Zoe

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answered May 04 '19 at 14:25

Shahazan

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score 2 · Answer 19 · answered Feb 11 '20 at 19:03

In my case none of the solutions here worked. I eventually found that the program in question was frozen trying to poll USB audio interfaces. So I unplugged a USB DAC I had connected, and to my surprise the application quit instantly. Francis' answer mentions that it could be a result of "unprocessed I/O requests that hasn't been handled properly (by a device driver your program has possibly accessed)", which might explain why this fixed it.

I suppose it really depends on what the program was doing when it froze, but if none of the other solutions are working, try disconnecting all USB devices to see if one of them could be the cause.

score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Sep 07 '16 at 23:34

1

I have the Problem with debugged processes with gdb in Code::Blocks. As soon it is hanging while accidentally stepping into instructions out of scope of your sources (as libs without sources or system functions) you cannot quit the debugging neither from Code::Blocks nor from Task-Manager.

I think it is an error in the implementation of gdb in Code::Blocks, but could also be in gdb ;)

My Solution:

taskkill /F /IM process.exe /T

This shows the PID of the parent process. Now kill the parent:

taskkill /PID yyyy

Both are gone.

Done.

answered Sep 07 '16 at 23:34

kolp

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It's possible for the parent PID to not exist. – user1133275 Nov 10 '16 at 17:09
Please specify what gdb and Code::Blocks are ;) – bluish Nov 14 '17 at 14:52
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Warning: if the parent process is `services.exe` then killing parent may cause BSOD – M.M Dec 23 '17 at 11:31

score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Feb 23 '17 at 11:54

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NirSoft's NirCmd did the job for me:

nircmd killprocess "process name.exe"

killprocess man page is here.

answered Feb 23 '17 at 11:54

Saxtus

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score 1 · Answer 22 · answered Feb 17 '18 at 22:04

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I had the exact same issue, found this fix on another site: powershell.exe "Get-Process processname| Stop-Process" it worked for me and I was in the same boat where I had to restart, the /T would not work.

answered Feb 17 '18 at 22:04

Jeremy

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score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Apr 05 '18 at 18:57

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If you download the free sysinternals suite, it has a pskill.exe application which works well for these types of tasks: pskill.exe "process_name" It works on these processes even without using its -t option.

answered Apr 05 '18 at 18:57

BenV136

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score 1 · Answer 24 · edited May 18 '18 at 16:24

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I did the following, on an elevated powershell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> wmic.exe /interactive:off process where "name like `'java%'`" call terminate

command Output:

Executing (\\SRV\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_Process.Handle="3064")->terminate()
Method execution successful.

Out Parameters:

instance of __PARAMETERS
{ReturnValue = 0; };

I got some syntax information on : https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/871561-wmic-error-like-invalid-alias-verb

edited May 18 '18 at 16:24

builder-7000

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answered May 18 '18 at 12:22

Lakoroll

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This actually worked, should be accepted answer. Thanks – John Newman Jun 14 '18 at 14:56

score 1 · Answer 25 · answered Nov 21 '18 at 18:50

As Francis mentioned some process can not be terminated because of

"unprocessed I/O requests"

In my experience i was dealing with buggy graphic driver that would cause my game to crash and not be able to close it, as last resort i disabled the graphic driver and the process finally went away.

If your application is waiting for a resource from driver like wifi or graphic try disabling them in device manager, you need to dig a little deep to see where they hanged.

This is of course not recommended but sometimes you have nothing to lose anymore.

score 1 · Answer 26 · answered Mar 01 '19 at 02:25

I had the same problem and as many others here have said none of the normal Kill commands worked. My problem file was an executable that was being run from a network share by a user on a Remote Desktop Server. With multiple shared users not an easy thing to restart in during a work day. Even when the user logged off the exe was still listed in Task Manager. I sent to the server where the folder was shared and from Computer Management -> Sessions found the user with the session still open from that RDP server even though he was logged off. Right Click -> Close Session and the file lock was released.

Beats me why I couldn't end the taks. The error message I was originally getting when I try and delete the file was "The action can't be completed because the file is open in System"

Hope this helps someone else.

score 0 · Answer 27 · edited Sep 08 '17 at 16:53

I faced the same issue where I started a node app in port 3000 and it didn't close correctly and the process kept running even after restart.

None of the taskkill or powershell commands running in Administrator mode worked for me.

I used MS Process Expoler > Properties > Image > Current directory (which was supposed to be the my project directory).

Finally, I had to reboot in SafeMode and rename the project folder and restart. The Node processes which were consuming port 3000 killed itself.

score 0 · Answer 28 · edited Jan 27 '22 at 15:03

0

For killing PID Tasks running in windows:

TASKKILL  /PID "Taskname"  /F

edited Jan 27 '22 at 15:03

DescampsAu

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answered Jan 26 '22 at 08:06

Saran Zeb

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score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Sep 25 '22 at 07:25

using wmic: show all running process where name of process is cmd.exe

wmic process where name="cmd.exe" GET ProcessId, CommandLine,CreationClassName

then terminate the specific instance of process by processId (PID)

WMIC PROCESS WHERE "ProcessID=13800" CALL TERMINATE

score -6 · Answer 30 · answered May 20 '19 at 11:02

-6

Run CMD as Admin will fix the problem

answered May 20 '19 at 11:02

Ibtissam Ibtissama

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Please give more details about what to do next after running CMD as Admin. – Máster Dec 06 '19 at 01:43

score -9 · Answer 31 · answered Nov 17 '13 at 13:21

-9

open task manager
select services tab
select the process( devenv.exe ) you want to kill and click services button
right on the process, select properties and disable it...

answered Nov 17 '13 at 13:21

zoom

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Taskkill /f doesn't kill a process

31 Answers31

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